Posts Tagged ‘Andy Reid’

Reid is a very big man, a former collegiate offensive lineman, and when I met him last spring, he was in full off-season mode: tan, relaxed, and draped in a colorful Hawaiian silk shirt large enough to display the entire Amazon rain forest.

…….

I’ve written about football in the past, but I am by no means an expert, so I had gone looking for a pro coach to help me break down film of the famous game. I live just outside Philadelphia and once covered the Eagles for the local newspaper, so I phoned Derek Boyko, the team’s affable public-relations director. Boyko warned me that the club’s assistant coaches were probably too busy, but he nevertheless agreed to ask around. He called back to say that all of the coaches, curious about the way the game was played before most of them were born, had expressed an interest. “But they need permission from Andy,” he said. “I’ll ask him when he comes back from leave in a few weeks.”

I’m enjoying what the beat writers have going on over at Eagletarian, it’s fun to get a glimpse of their personalities in these posts — even if what they are saying is a bit goofy sometimes.

Today Les Bowen — who, out of the three of them I prefer most of the time — takes a few shots at Andy Reid. Bowen noted that Reid seemed grumpy during mini-camp with the media, and Bowen thinks it was unwarranted.

All that said, I have no idea why Reid got snarky yesterday when radio reporter Brian Seltzer asked a perfectly legitimate, respectful question. Seltzer wondered if the fairly smooth minicamp that ended Monday was an improvement over the situation a year ago, when Reid was still dealing with the aftermath of his sons’ arrests, and Donovan McNabb was still sidelined following ACL surgery.

….

If Reid was talking about finding negative stories last year, well, I thought everybody in the local media handled Reid’s family problems with dignity, empathy, and courtesy…

While I think that notion is debatable, it doesn’t keep Bowen from giving Reid some advice:

All is well, dude, or as well as it ever gets around here. Relax.

Les, here’s something for you to consider. Andy Reid is a football coach. He’s not an anchor on the E! network. He enjoys talking football. He doesn’t enjoy talking about the drama that the Enquirer, the Daily News, ESPN, and everyone else enjoys so much.

If I were him I’d be tired of addressing all of that crap too. So if you ask the football coach questions about football, I’d bet he’ll give you an answer without a hint of contempt. If you venture into the realm of the soap operas, you might get some attitude. Even though Reid knows he has to answer most of those questions, he doesn’t have to like it.

You shouldn’t be surprised by it. And if you want to write about the soap operas — deal with it.

Q: What’s your take on the desire of your fan base to add a top-flight receiver?A: I think they feel passionate about that spot, and sometimes that can be a bit overrated. But I understand the want there. I don’t necessarily feel the same way, but I understand where they are coming from.

Translation: I realize how ridiculous I sound given our chasing of Moss and Fitzgerald.

Q: Wouldn’t it be difficult to keep everybody happy in that scenario? (Lito, Sheldon, Asante all on the team)A: I’m not really in the business of keeping everybody happy. My business is winning games. I think they all want to win.

Translation: If we don’t get a decent deal for Lito, he’s going to have to be happy at nickel.

Q: How do you view the situation at left guard?A: Todd [Herremans] has to do a better job than he did last year. He has that potential. He showed a lot of intestinal fortitude last year by working through the knee surgery and coming back without missing any time. With that said, the production part of it, he has to do better.

Q: Will Max Jean-Gilles compete for the starting job?A: Yeah, you’ve got a couple guys in there. You also have Scott Young. I think people have forgotten about Scott, and he’s a pretty good player. You have that whole crew there.

Q: Would you prefer not to move Shawn Andrews because he’s been so successful at guard?
A: Not necessarily. Shawn was one of the finest tackles I’ve ever seen come out of college football. I really brought him here to do that, and to get him on the field sooner I put him in at guard. I have no problem moving him, and I think he could play the left side as well as anybody in this league.

Translation: Herremans’ job is up for grabs in camp. Andrews future is likely at the tackle spot, especially if Winston Justice doesn’t pan out.

We should all be pretty happy about this scenario. Clearly, Reid has confidence in guys like Jean-Gilles and Young. This team has a ton of depth on the line and the future looks good there. Does this mean the team will be looking at other positions in the first round of the draft? Hmm…

And finally…

Q: Has the team added enough playmakers?A: I think we’ve got pretty good playmakers, which I think was evident by the results at the end of the season. We went on a bit of a run there, and some of the guys stepped up and played well.

Of course, the A-hole that runs PFT (and he is an A-hole) tries to frame that quote in such a way to create the appearance of a rift between McNabb and Reid. In fact there is no rift, Reid is being forced to say that because the team failed to acquire either Moss or Fitzgerald. Fuck off, PFT.